1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the field of network agents for testing and measuring networks. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a network agent designed to communicate with a network test and management system and which can be dynamically expanded to communicate with additional interfaces without being redesigned or recoded; where the agent can be dynamically augmented with functionality for allowing the network test and management system to communicate with different types of interfaces added to the agent.
2. Description of the Related Art
Previous network agents used in a communications testing and measurement system have been designed and written specifically hardcoded to work with certain limited types of voice or network devices. A network test or troubleshooting center system (NTC) may need to communicate with various types of network devices or agents, such as a network analyzer agent, probe, a voice quality testing device, a router, and so on. Previously, these devices have been designed specifically for one type of interface. The NTC will communicate with the different types of agents independently. To date, designers of network test and measurement systems have had to redesign and recode a network agent for each new type of interface to be added to the agent and users have not been able to incrementally install different interfaces for operation with one agent.
What is needed is a method and system for extending network agents in a test and measurement setting to handle newly installed interfaces of different types without having to be redesign and recode the agents.